ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Mathematics & Computation
Division members promote the advancement of mathematical and computational methods for solving problems arising in all disciplines encompassed by the Society. They place particular emphasis on numerical techniques for efficient computer applications to aid in the dissemination, integration, and proper use of computer codes, including preparation of computational benchmark and development of standards for computing practices, and to encourage the development on new computer codes and broaden their use.
Meeting Spotlight
2021 Student Conference
April 8–10, 2021
Virtual Meeting
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2021
Jul 2020
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2021
Nuclear Technology
February 2021
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2021
Latest News
NC State celebrates 70 years of nuclear engineering education
An early picture of the research reactor building on the North Carolina State University campus. The Department of Nuclear Engineering is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its nuclear engineering curriculum in 2020–2021. Photo: North Carolina State University
The Department of Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University has spent the 2020–2021 academic year celebrating the 70th anniversary of its becoming the first U.S. university to establish a nuclear engineering curriculum. It started in 1950, when Clifford Beck, then of Oak Ridge, Tenn., obtained support from NC State’s dean of engineering, Harold Lampe, to build the nation’s first university nuclear reactor and, in conjunction, establish an educational curriculum dedicated to nuclear engineering.
The department, host to the 2021 ANS Virtual Student Conference, scheduled for April 8–10, now features 23 tenure/tenure-track faculty and three research faculty members. “What a journey for the first nuclear engineering curriculum in the nation,” said Kostadin Ivanov, professor and department head.
D. Rochman, A. J. Koning
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 169 | Number 1 | September 2011 | Pages 68-80
Technical Paper | dx.doi.org/10.13182/NSE10-66
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents a novel approach to combine Monte Carlo optimization and nuclear data to produce an optimal adjusted nuclear data file. We first introduce the methodology, which is based on the so-called “Total Monte Carlo” and the TALYS system. As an original procedure, not only a single nuclear data file is produced for a given isotope but virtually an infinite number, defining probability distributions for each nuclear quantity. Then, each of these random nuclear data libraries is used in a series of benchmark calculations. With a goodness-of-fit estimator, a best evaluation for that benchmark set can be selected. To apply the proposed method, the neutron-induced reactions on 239Pu are chosen. More than 600 random files of 239Pu are presented, and each of them is tested with 120 criticality benchmarks. From this, the best performing random file is chosen and proposed as the optimum choice among the studied random set.
